@FD1000: David's link that you are referring to is PRIMARILY about investing issues, and incidentally about financial sleaze at the White House. Your link is simply more right-wing garbage with NO relation to investing, yet you have no problem making a totally false equivalency. No wonder you generate such antipathy from and lack of credibility with other posters.

@FD1k,
Apologies; I thought it was you who said long ago you did all your rapid trading of mfunds without penalty via special treatment.
Not seeing that anything I said is trash. Good for being multimillionaire; me too.

Disgusting swamp goo.

I agree. I wasn't in that meeting but I sold most of my portfolio(all bond funds) at the end of 02/2020 documented (

here).
But, the following (link) is also a disgusting swamp goo and we can call it Joe Quid pro quo.

You obviously do not know and have not cared to find out that this is bullshit and has been known to be so for some time. Do I need to post cites? I mean, seriously, dude.

FD 1000, thanks for the lucid explanation. I understand how you can make your goals
by your plan. Unfortunately for me, I can't do it. Using the IOFIX example, one would have to invest 1 million (minimum required) in IOFIX to make $7500 holding the fund for that productive a month. I have neither the money nor the courage to put that much on the line when the same unexpected drop that occurred in February to March can recur in our present uncertain times. So, I dither along making $ 10-20k investments at a time.
Do you have any suggestions on modifying your technique for smaller sized investments?

Old_Joe, pay attention who posted about politics first. If you guys want to discuss politics please use the off-topic.
It's pretty clear see below
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/14/us/politics/coronavirus-trump-investors.html

Below is a chart of the SP500. When do I buy stocks (usually SP500 or QQQ)?
I look for at least 5-8% loss from the last top. Then I need to see:
1) MACD goes from higher negative to positive
2) Uptrend in price for several days
3) If price crossed the SP500 it's better
I buy for 2-5 days to make 2+%.
There are other signs but it's a good start.
You may think it’s bogus but I have been using T/A for years with a very high success rate.
Why the above works? because the more the market goes down, there is a good chance it will come back at least 50-60% of the lose. I'm looking for the first sign of momentum, join it and leave within days.

=========
For bond funds where I make most of my money I look for momentum + SD in the last 1-4 weeks (but also look at long term) + other factors.
Again, I have done very nicely as the numbers showed. The key for me it to make money slowly and lose almost nothing. I follow funds and categories to see where is momentum. What seems a lot of work for most, it's a passion of mine and many times I do nothing for several weeks-months. Of course, T/A is only one aspect of it, a visual of a chart is very helpful because I can see many funds on the same chart. Look at a simple (chart) with 2 funds, can you guess which one is better? IOFIX is better because the uptrend is gradual and goes up while PIMIX chart goes down then up which means IOFIX momentum and volatility is better.

@FD1000- For someone who complained frequently about being subjected to"off-topic" commentary you seem to have no problem introducing some real crap in an investing forum area.
A separate isolated Off-Topic forum area was created specifically because of those complaints. How about using it?

Sticking to the original topic, as I meant no insult to any individual posters here, OJ or FD1000, I find, to be more specific, much albeit not all of technical analysis to be nonsense. I think volume data is useful in the right hands, as are advance decline, short-term momentum, and investor sentiment ratios, but it is this specific rearview analysis in the article of long-term past returns I find to be ridiculous:

April has been the strongest month this century, rising 80% of the time AND producing average monthly gains of 2.5%. The second- and third-best months are November (rises 79% of the time, with average monthly gains of 1.7%) and October (rises 70% of the time, with average monthly gains of 1.3%), respectively. In fact, if we look at the S&P 500, there have only been 7 years when this benchmark index has fallen during both October AND November. Here are the years:
1951, 1971, 1973, 1976, 1987, 2000, 2008.
5 of those 7 years occurred during the secular bear markets from the 1970s and 2000s. 1987 was when we had Black Monday and the resulting fallout the next month (November). Outside of those years, we've had ONE year since 1950 when we've been in a secular bull market and saw the S&P 500 slide during both October and November in the same year. I think it's safe to say that the odds really favor the bulls during the balance of 2020.
Let's take it one step further. If we look at the S&P 500 from the close on October 27th through the close on January 18th of the following calendar year, our benchmark index has ended this period higher than it started in 61 of the last 70 years. It's risen 35 times in the past 38 years during that period. I'd say the odds are definitely on the bulls' side. But it's not just the frequency of the gains, it's the size of them. Before I give you this next stat, keep in mind that the S&P 500 has averaged gaining roughly 9% per year since 1950. Would you like to know how many times the S&P 500 has gained at least 9% during this "less-than-90-day-period"? 17. And if we lower the bar to 8% or more, the number swells to 25 times in the past 70 years.
What if I said that the NASDAQ's history during this period is even more bullish? Because it is. The average gain on the S&P 500 during that October 28th through January 18th period is 4.59%. The NASDAQ? +6.20%. Furthermore, over the past three decades, here are the 4 best calendar months on the NASDAQ in terms of annualized returns:

To look at history based merely on the price movements in the past without any real analysis as to why that price movement occurred--say falling interest rates, age demographics, America becoming a super power after the wars, and not being in the midst of a terrible pandemic for instance--and whether similar conditions are present today is stupid and useless to me, and reaks of snakeoil salesmen.
However, there is use in some technical data I believe for measuring the "psychology" of the market in the short-term.

NYT article -

What has emerged from your research that retirees should think about?
The importance of interdependence alongside independence — we all would do better in our later years if we’re connected and not isolated. And how do I maximize my health span, not just my life span?
And there’s the serious issue of funding our longer lives. A third of the boomers have close to nothing saved for retirement and no pensions; that is a massive poverty phenomenon about to happen, unless millions of people work a bit longer, spend less, downsize or even share their homes with housemates or family.
What is the biggest mistake retirees make?
Far too many think far too small. I have asked thousands of people from all walks of life over the years who are nearing retirement what they hope to do in retirement. They tell me: ‘I want to get some rest, exercise some more, visit with my family, go on a great vacation, read some great books’ Then most stall. Few have taken the time or effort to study the countless possibilities that await them or imagine or explore all of the incredible ways they can spend the next period of their lives.

rethinking-retirement

I was first attracted to this fund, FSRPX, when I was creating a list of mutual funds with consistently high risk adjusted returns. It's management captures 148% of the upside (of the Consumer Cyclical Index) while suffering only 91% of the Index's downside losses in down markets.
It continues to deliver those results long term. Its 5, 10, and 15 trailing returns has placed this fund in the top 1% of Consumer Cyclical funds. It is a concentrated fund in which just 10 companies account for 66% of the fund's assets.
FSRPX - M* Profile:
https://morningstar.com/funds/xnas/fsrpx/quote
Forbes Article -
The Tale of Retail

Lots of BS about me. How nice is to post trash without any proof.
==============
@davidrmoran:but it is true that FD1k should be a multimillionaire, philanthropist, and posting regularly for seekingalpha or similar
FD: I'm a multimillionaire but not philanthropist or making money posting on seekingalpha.
=============
@davidrmoran: plus a byline somewhere advising others about bonds and his rapid fund trading without penalty.
FD: why do you think I should pay any penalty? I have special arrangement at Schwab where I have a dedicated trader that buys all the Inst funds for me with no commissions and I can sell these funds within one day (I don't buy funds that have longer mandatory hold). Example: IOFIX,PIMIX. If I don’t buy Inst funds and these funds are not Schwab fund and I sell within 90 days I do pay the $49.95 short term penalty which is nothing compared to the amount I'm making.
===============
@Junkster,
Your posts have several examples of liars, are you insinuating that I lied too?. I never claimed that I made a very high %, just a pretty good performance with very low SD. Remember, since I retired in 2018, we have enough money to sustain our standard of living for another 40-50 years if our portfolio will make just 4% annually including inflation. Our portfolio is 35+ times our annual expense without our SS. This is why I set up the following goals: make 6% average annually with the lowest SD I can get (preferably under 3) and never lose 3% from any last top. We don’t care about maximizing performance anymore but to meet our specific goals. To do that I use mainly bond mutual funds + several short term trades (hours-days) using stocks/ETF/CEFs/other. The 3 year results are much better than my goals. I never lost more than 1% from any last top in the last 3 years. Below is a copy from my Schwab accounts as of yesterday which is about 95% of our total money. There is no way to achieve these results without being a good trader and why I posted other funds too
3 year performance/SD...SPY 13.1%/17.7...VBINX (60/40) 10%/11.1....VWIAX (40/60) 7.046.6%/...PIMIX 3.75%/5.6....IOFIX 0.2%/23.7
My portfolio performance was 9.9% annually for 3 year with SD=2.18
Below you can see an image of performance as of 10/14/2020 from Schwab. Column 1=one year...Column 2=YTD...Column 3=one year...Column 4=3 years

Below is the SD for one year and 3 years

Worthwhile blog entry that discusses the tightening relationship between the Fed and the Treasury. Also discusses the Fed's increasing embrace of MMT.
blog.yardeni.com/2020/10/dont-fight-t-fed.html

Here is an article that suggests a blue wave election in November will probably move solar investments up further following the election. Some specific investment ideas are included.
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/17-Trillion-Green-Energy-Spending-Spree-Could-Send-Solar-Stocks-Soaring.html

Disgusting swamp goo.

I agree. I wasn't in that meeting but I sold most of my portfolio(all bond funds) at the end of 02/2020 documented (here).
But, the following (link) is also a disgusting swamp goo and we can call it Joe Quid pro quo.

I've looked at PIMIX before. $125B AUM. I stayed away. That's just beyond bloated. Just my preference.

Although Pimco can manage funds with considerable AUM better than most firms, I agree that PIMIX has become too bloated. The legacy RMBS that helped propel the fund for years are in short supply now and it will be difficult for the fund to take a meaningful position in these securities. Philosophically, I dislike Pimco's record of not closing any funds (to my knowledge) due to excessive AUM.

Looks like this one never got off the ground.
- Market Neutral Fund
- Less than 5 years old.
- 23.3 M AUM
- 2.85% ER
- Down 13% over past year
- Turnover 290%
Alternative investing is a tough row to hoe. Thanks for the post @TheShadow

An article from Barron to diversify international stocks when USD weaken,

Investors should check whether an international fund is hedged against currency fluctuations or not. The hedged funds can protect returns when the dollar strengthens but will underperform when a cheaper dollar gives international assets an extra lift. While hedged and unhedged funds generate similar returns over the long run, in the short term, there can be big differences. Over the past three months, for example, the $49 billion iShares MSCI EAFE exchange-traded fund (EFA) gained 16.2%, while the $2.3 billion iShares Currency Hedged MSCI EAFE ETF (HEFA) returned just 9.9%. “If the dollar continues to weaken, the unhedged funds should do better than the hedged funds,” says Morningstar ETF specialist Alex Bryan.

https://barrons.com/articles/how-to-prepare-your-portfolio-for-a-weaker-dollar-51598009400
May need to see if one can get behind the paywall.

I held PIMIX for years until 01/2018. Since then, it's not a top fund anymore.

I know we're getting way off topic for this thread but I was paying $90/mo for Comcast for internet only b/c I didn't need phone or cable, and wouldn't bundle just for the sake of bundling stuff I didn't use and giving them more subscriber counts. I got an offer for FIOS for what's essentially $35/mo for better-quality, symmetrical 100MB internet access (plus a year of Disney+ for free) and I am *very* pleased. At least Verizon worked to earn my business -- unless I callto threaten cancelling, Comcast just expects me to bend over every year (just like SiriusXM does).

Cable thieves. Don't even..... So, back East, I "bundled" with Comcast. Then I ditched the landline phone--- after an election day in which the phone never stopped ringing from stoopid, useless, worthless, time-wasting goddam political calls. And some were ILLEGAL robo-calls, just recorded messages. The politicians get away with that because in the pertinent laws, they always exempt themselves. ..... So we kept internet and tv. Two of three services. But the BILL did not go down by one-third. Then we killed cable tv. Screw 'em. We were using just one offered service, out of three, previously. But the bill was reduced by only $20.00 or $30.00. Extortionist motherlovers.

I've looked at PIMIX before. $125B AUM. I stayed away. That's just beyond bloated. Just my preference.